


Theft

by HostisHumaniGeneris



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Arguments, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Missing Scene, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:42:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23957863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HostisHumaniGeneris/pseuds/HostisHumaniGeneris
Summary: Dad and Mom were parodies of themselves, ever since Eveline showed up. On the rare occasions where an encounter with them didn’t have her running—usually when she was hiding from them—they acted familiar, but wrong. Lucas, however? Lucas had… for a long time, her run ins with him were a lot more disturbing, because at times, it almost seemed like he was still the same Lucas.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11
Collections: Id Pro Quo 2020





	Theft

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Coffin Liqueur (HP_Lovecats)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HP_Lovecats/gifts).



A steady stream of water came down from a leak in the roof where the glass panels had fallen through. Zoe gave it a wide berth—soaked to the skin, she didn’t want to risk any more rain on the package she had tucked under her arms. She looked through a hole in the wall at the greenhouse. Lightning flashed, intermittently illuminating the lumpy, misshapen things congregating on the lawn. She bypassed her trailer to hide here for the night because three were in front of it, but the lawn was lousy with them.

Her heart was pounding a mile a minute… this had been even crazier, even stupider than she thought it was when she started.

Tonight had gone ridiculously well, she managed to slip in and out unnoticed—it was always easier to do that with Dad. Getting past Mama was a lot harder, but she was sticking around the old house lately. Getting into the house, sneaking up the stairs was too easy. The search was quick, Dad never changed his hiding places, even after he caught Lucas and Zoe sneaking a peak at the Christmas presents when she was young.

She blinked away tears at that thought. Felt like forever ago, Lucas was talking her into it.

Taking a seat on an old stool, she tore at the package. Like she was six years old on Christmas day again. Stop thinking, she reminded herself. Boxes within the box spilled onto the dirt. Her hands were shaking as she picked one up and tore open the cellophane. Pulling open the little red and white box. She muttered a ‘fuck’ as she dropped a few cigarettes in on the ground. She took a deep breath to calm herself, willed her hands to steady, and put a cigarette between her lips, then stuffed the rest of the pack in her pocket.

Yep, she just risked life and limb in service of her nicotine addiction.

She fished the lighter out of her pocket—was an old Zippo that Grandpa got for a work anniversary in the mine. Still worked perfectly. Flicked it looked at the warm flame in the dark lighthouse, and lit her cigarette. She took a long drag, shutting her eyes as she did so. Opened them to watch the cloud of smoke as she exhaled.

Yeah. The whole episode had been fucking insane. Then again, everything had been completely insane. The headaches, the increasing lack of focus and unclarity. She needed to, if nothing else, prove it was the nicotine, and not something worse. She’d felt like shit for well over a year, but when she ran out of smokes, and started feeling worse, she worried if the resistance, or whatever, was starting to fail.

Risking life and limb to find out no, it was just a bad habit was _glorious._

“Those things’ll kill ya, Zoe.” She practically jumped as she heard that, followed by a peel of hyena-like laughter. He strolled out of the shadows, hands behind his back. “Or will they get ya killed? C’mon sis, stealin’ from the folks? Dad’s gonna be _pissed_.”

She stood up and squared her shoulders her shoulders. A quick, sidelong glance at hole in the wall showed utter blackness, hiding more of those things. Them and the rain or Lucas. Against her better judgment, she asked “And you’re here because…”

“Well, I was gonna raid the liquor cabinet… but saw you comin’ out of the house as I was ‘bout to head in.” He shrugged. That was plausible. After all, she’d heard the screams and yells the one time Dad had caught Lucas in his liquor cabinet a few weeks back. She hunched up in bed, covering her head with the pillow. Still, she knew better than to ever trust him.

“You just happened to want to grab liquor right when at the same time I was grabbing smokes?” Run-ins with the others had to be managed carefully. Mia would help her sometimes, but she was a mess upstairs and her mood swings were violent. Mama and Dad would chase her, say plenty of things that would drive Zoe to tears when she got away, calmed down, and thought about what they’d say. Lucas… was Lucas.

“We all have our vices, Zoe.” He said, overselling innocence. “You have smokes and all this delinquent behavior. Mom, she’s right proper jealously protective of that old house. Dad… too many to list. Evie? Can’t help but want to make friends with every damn thing see sees. And me? I have a couple… and right about now we don’t have any newcomers, so booze it is.”

It was… creepy how little he changed. Dad and Mom were parodies of themselves, ever since Eveline showed up. On the rare occasions where an encounter with them didn’t have her running—usually when she was hiding from them—they acted familiar, but wrong. Lucas, however? Lucas had… for a long time, her run ins with him were a lot more disturbing, because at times, it almost seemed like he was still the same Lucas.

And then he’d do things like make a garland out of _pieces_ of another victim, someone they dragged to the home. “Vices. Right.”

“Don’t trust me? C’mon Zoe, you’re _so_ paranoid lately.” He tilted his head, approached, and stiffened. “Then again, you always were a little holier-than-thou. For a long time. No trust at all for your big brother. Why is that, by the way?”

She took another drag on her smoke. “Yeah. What could go wrong with trusting you?”

Lucas shrank back a little, the darkness and his hood obscuring his mock-hurt expression. Not that Zoe needed to see it to know he was making it, not with the hurt tone of voice Lucas delivered the “When have I ever given you reason to doubt me?”

Followed by a hyena-like peel of laughter.

Zoe let out an exasperated sigh, Lucas hadn’t changed at all… and a chill ran down her spine. She couldn’t afford to think like that. Mama, Dad, he were all monsters. She’d seen enough of their handiwork, of Lucas’s handiwork, had actually had to remove _pieces_ of meat from her trailer after he nailed them to it. He wasn’t her annoying older brother, even if he looked and acted that way.

“C’mon Zoe. When have I _ever_ steered you wrong?” Lucas repeated a little more insistent, a little edgier. “Given you reason to doubt my best intentions?”

“Cheryl Dombroski” Zoe said flatly. Cheryl had been the name of another person that dad dragged here, kicking and screaming. Zoe’d helped her get loose, and they talked and planned a way out. Cheryl was going to stay in Zoe’s trailer for a little, insisted Zoe check in on her boyfriend before she’d help.

Cheryl’s boyfriend was in various pieces in the dining room, and when Zoe returned, Cheryl was nowhere to be found. Until two weeks later, on her Birthday. A banging on the trailer in the middle of the night, and when she forced open the door and saw a box…

“Hey! I remembered you’re birthday, even after you did _nothing_ for mine.” He said, mock-petulantly. “Not my fault you didn’t like my gift. C’mon, ever since Evie showed up…”

He droned on. It was a silly thing to fixate on, but that was another thing. To mom and dad, there was no before Evie. She was their daughter, Zoe’s sister. Lucas acknowledged that she wasn’t always there. What was different about him? His rant concluded with “…so c’mon, before you stopped being the baby of the family, when did I ever steer you wrong?”

“Why do you care?”

“Zoe, I asked you a question first.” He said, voice taking on an edge.

Oh, that was a _long_ list. There were a ton of little indiscretions he’d talked her into, sneaking a peak at those Christmas gifts. Playing hide-and-seek and locking her in a trunk in the barn. That time he asked her to hold a bag while they were in the mall and started to in the Mall and usher her out—right up until a security guard stopped them and she had to wait until Mom and Dad came to discuss _her_ shoplifitng.

“Diana.”

That was a pull. An old friend of hers from grade school. Who she hadn’t talked to after one bad day.

“Diana?” He said, puzzled, then his grin returned. “Oh, that!”

The grin was not very reassuring.

“That was an _accident_ , Zoe.”

She told him the Diana was allergic to peanuts, while Dad and Mom were both out and he was, in his own words, ‘stuck babysitting Zoe and her friend’. Multiple times. Somehow, when Lucas made them lunch, he used a knife he’d used to make a sandwich for himself or something. And he stared for a long time when Zoe’s friend coughed and sputtered and choked. Luckily, he snapped out of it to call 9-1-1 in time.

It was an accident. That’s what mom and dad said. Lucas could be careless, she knew that. Still, she made a point to never have friends over when it was just Lucas at home, no mom or dad. Which gradually meant she never had friends over. The look on his face while Diana doubled over and couldn’t breathe still stuck with her.

Zoe looked around the greenhouse, hoping the darkness made it hard for Lucas to tell she was scanning for something, anything. She saw a shovel, a couple steps away. Behind her was the stool, she’d been sitting on, flimsy, old.

“I am _shocked_ and appalled you would hold that against me.” He said, exaggeratedly clasping his hands over his chest. Seriously overselling that, almost killing a friend of hers because he was careless. The theatrics were something he’d always do way back when, as a sorry-not-sorry thing when she brought up all the other times he’d done something wrong. She had never thrown Diana in his face, until five seconds ago.

“Because you don’t hurt people for fun.” Zoe exhaled. Thinking of Diana was stupid, pointless. It was an accident back then, had to be. What Lucas did now, what Ma and Dad did… it was always intentional.

“I don’t!” Lucas said, eyes wild. He stuck his fingers in the pockets of his sweatshirt. “Y’see… someone has to clean up Evie’s broken toys, and if Ma and Pa can’t do it, well than I guess it’s always up to me.”

Zoe laughed bitterly, trying to distract from the fact that her eyes had locked on to a shovel. Maybe five feet to Lucas’s right. “Yeah. Because you just _love_ doing your chores.”

“Work’s work. Of course…” The pause was palpable. Zoe tensed up, teeth clenched. Lucas hunched down a little. “Doesn’t mean it can’t be fun!”

She whipped around, grabbing onto the stool as he charged at her. She swung, it shattered against his shoulder, and sent him stumbling away, swearing.

It gave Zoe the opportunity to run past him, straight at the shovel, grabbing it and practically bouncing off the wall as she whipped around, holding it up.

He had turned around, holding a pocket knife in his hand. He had started to unfold it, but seeing as she had a shovel, he sighed and stuck it back in his pocket. “Zoe, Zoe, Zoe. Remember, you used to love watching wrestlin’ with me and Dad. Haggar versus Gunloc?”

“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?” She yelled. Yeah, they watched pay-per-views together, although her bedtime usually was before the main event. She remembered crying that time Haggar went heel. Lucas and a few of his asshole friends even tried their hand at a little backyard wrestling.

“A fuckin’ stool’s a foreign object!” He yelled.

“And a knife isn’t?” She blurted out, shocked that he brought _that_ up. it had been years since he’d put her in a headlock while miming a color commentator.

“You hit me with the stool first!”

They fucking laid into each other. It was ridiculous, as Lucas and her shouted pettily. He brought up shit she forgot about, and things she was pretty sure never happened. She kept on more recent events, they were all monsters, what the fuck was wrong with them. He was keyed up enough that he hadn’t managed to bring up his pride at all the things he’d done.

Eventually, he slumped a little, and let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Sisters…” Lucas said, shaking his head a little. “Y’know I was talking with Evie earlier today… god, you don’t trust me, and she always has to get her way. Y’know, you mope about all the people dyin’ around here—if Evie wasn’t constantly wanting new friends to play with, and you weren’t always getting those new friends to do your dirty work for you, I don’t think anyone would have a bad day here.”

He laughed like that was the funniest joke he ever said. Then he added, under his breath. “Man, Evie is getting _worse_. I ain’t the only one that’s noticed, right? ‘Course, I can’t say that to Ma and Dad.”

Zoe shuddered. Evie. Everything went wrong the night after the storm. Eveline had turned her family into the monsters they were now. The notion of her getting _worse_ was unfathomable. Dryly, Zoe said “Yeah. She’s a real brat”

“Damn straight.” Lucas said, flashing a grin. Zoe’s eyes narrowed. What was his game? Ma and Pa worshipped Evie. Mia was a mess, but in her better moments, she was repulsed by Evie. But Lucas? He was so flippant.

More things changed the more they stayed the same.

“She’s getting worse.” Zoe repeated idly. Having one of them, any of them on her side about Evie was new. Mia was terrified of the girl, at least when she wasn’t cackling and trying to strangle Zoe. But she was so disjointed, couldn’t think straight. Lucas could.

“Yeah. Pretty sure she’s sleepin’ now. Or off bugging the old man. It’s funny, y’know? I come here, thinking about playing some trick on you…” He said, noting her raise the shovel. “Oh come on! Nobody in this place is easy to hurt! I fuckin’ know that firsthand. Sometimes I feel like that fucking coyote. God, and hear we were, having a good time talking shit about Evie.”

Oh yes, Lucas had been mangled and gotten better for it. Zoe was not looking forward to testing that.

They were silent for a long while, as rain continued to patter down from the hole. Lucas rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, smug grin on his face. His left arm was at his side, his right was in his pocket, along with the knife. Zoe kept her grip on the shovel, keeping her eyes on him for a long, long time.

She considered just braining him and leaving, but with all the molded outside… most of them would clear out by morning, assuming the rain let up. Didn’t like the sun. Just had to wait a little.

“How do you do it, by the way?” Lucas asked suddenly. His voice was low, lips pursed. There wasn’t a hint of mockery to the question. That piqued Zoe’s interest.

“Do what?” She shot back.

“Be so goddamn stubborn.” Lucas said, annoyed. “Ma and Pa always kiss her ass. Mia… well she’s either as mopey and stubborn as you are, or the worst of us…”

Zoe shivered a little. That was the truth. Sometimes she could predict when Mia was about to turn, other times, not so much. In trying to figure out how to get out from under Evie, Mia was needed, but also just as dangerous as everyone else.

“…and then there’s you.” Lucas concluded. He almost sounded jealous of her. He was so hard to parse. He got a kick out of everything he did, and now he seemed regretful? There was never more than a flicker of that in Mom and Dad, and never for any serious length of time. “All this time, and you still haven’t gotten with the program. _Why_?”

Zoe was silent.

“I mean… c’mon. Haven’t left this place, but seriously, you’ve lasted so long. Part of me thinks Evie likes having you to push against. Likes toying with you.”

She did not need him to tell her that. Evie sounded _so_ amused when Zoe heard that voice, all of the mockery from that little girl that was not a little girl at all.

“But still… she’s not a patient little girl. Likes toying with people, but… she also likes people doing what their told.” Lucas said. This was odd. Lucas really didn’t care about peoples motivations, they were either ‘alright’ or they were ‘assholes’. And nobody else on this house did anything but fawn over Eveline. “And she tells me all the time how you _don’t_.”

“Well, what about you?” Zoe shot back, tightening her grip on her shovel. She was grasping at straws. Maybe if he was questioning Eveline, she could push things a little more. Maybe she could get him to listen to reason.

“Me?” Lucas asked, tone of voice adding “ _are you fucking seriously doing a ‘nuh-uh, you!’_ ”.

“Like you said, Ma and Pa are one track…” She began, trying to pick her words. She wanted answers as much as he did. More probably. “All for Evie. They don’t get wrapped up in ‘side projects’ like you.”

“I ain’t Evie’s parent.” Lucas said after a long pause with a shrug. Neither was Ma or Dad. But there was something _different_. Lucas was so flippant. There had to be some reason for this. “And she’s the baby. They gotta spoil her.”

Something about that rang very hollow to her ears. She clenched her jaw.

“That’s it!” Lucas suddenly blurted out, snapping his fingers. He was getting louder, using that smug tone of voice. He might’ve come to a realization, or he might’ve just been trying to change the subject. “I know why you’re so goddamn stubborn! You went from the little sister to the middle kid!”

She was _not_ the middle kid, because Evie was not a kid.

She clenched her teeth as Lucas went on another stream of consciousness rant, how it was obvious why she was so _mean_ to Evie. She was _jealous_. All that attention that Evie got, all of it used to be Zoe’s. That was a fucking lie, she knew it, and he did. But he kept it up, spinning a bigger and bigger web. After the storm—how come he remembered the storm was when they found Evie when mom and dad seemed to think she was here the entire time—she wasn’t the golden child any more.

“Lucas…” She felt her heart began to pound, and she tightened her grip on the shovel. She had been _so_ close, she could feel it, but he was nettling her again, trying to get her angry. This wasn’t about propping up Evie, like when Mom or Dad went on a tangent. This was about hurting Zoe.

“What’s that Mama always sing’s to Evie?” Lucas suddenly asked. “I mean, the one you always liked? Remember, you’d be repeating the song to yourself randomly?”

Zoe clenched her teeth. Her eyes stung. Being reminded of that was too much. She did not want to hear this. “Stop it.”

“Hm… lotta ones. ‘You are my sunshine’?” Lucas said, rubbing his chin with his free hand. She could tell he thought she didn’t notice him slowly raising his other one, the one with the knife. “Nah. Oh yeah! ‘Go tell Aunt Rhody, Go tell Aunt Rhody…”

As he sung off-key and off-meter, Zoe took a step forward and raised her shovel. He backpedalled a little, still grinning as her swing came short. He very deliberately looked over his shoulder, maybe making sure he wasn’t backing into something solid, maybe checking for _something_. She stopped.

He could’ve just been making sure he could retreat. Or he was trying to bait her somewhere. He must’ve gotten here first, which, knowing him, meant he could’ve set _something nasty_ up.

He did say that he was planning a prank for her.

Zoe bit the inside of her lip until it bled, as Lucas gradually trailed off. He knew her buttons, the ways to piss her right off. And she needed to keep a cool head, because who the fuck knew what he was doing here? If he saw her sneaking into the house, then came here… chances were good he wasn’t just here the whole point of this conversation wasn’t just to annoy her.

“…everbody’s dead.” Lucas concluded, with a broad grin.

“It’s ‘the old gray goose is dead’, dummy.” Zoe said, doing her best to maintain her composure. Her face was wet, and it hadn’t been from the rainstorm.

“I like it better that way.”

“Excuses, excuses. Head in the clouds.” Zoe said, trying to smile a little. Dad had a little litany, when report cards came in. Nobody denied that Lucas was _smart_. But Dad kinda never let Lucas forget he wasn’t always as clever as he thought. A roomful of second-place engineering trophies, plenty of “C’s” and “B’s” that would’ve been “A’s” without really careless mistakes. What was that litany Dad had when Lucas flunked a test because he didn’t feel like studying? “C’mon, did you just not _know_ the lyrics? Did you just not _care_? Or were you just trying to piss me off?”

Lucas wasn’t grinning, and Zoe took that as a good sign. Not that this would end well, but that she struck a nerve. Lucas was still Lucas, and he knew how to push her buttons. Luckily, she knew how to push his. “A man of your talents, and just don’t seem to have any plan, ‘cept never leaving your barn and your toys.”

It was a cheap shot, and more than once when Dad was giving that lecture, she’d feel some sympathy for Lucas—after all, she was in the exact same boat as he was. Not their fault the economy tanked partway through schooling and they couldn’t find anything in their neck of the woods that’d pay what they’d need to get out of here. Still, it worked to piss him off.

“Shut up! You have _no_ fuckin’ clue what the score is, Zoe! No fuckin’ clue.” He said, hand raised, finger pointed at him. “You… I…”

The false starts meant that she really struck a nerve. He eventually scowled, walked over to the cigarette’s she had stolen, and lifted the carton. The game wasn’t fun anymore once he got flustered, so he was taking the metaphorical ball and leaving. He left in a huff, and she waited a long, long time after he left to fish another cigarette out of the pack in her pocket. She’d have to make these last, because Dad would be paranoid about them for a while… but she _really_ needed a smoke right now.

Lucas was… impenetrable. He was so much like her brother, when Ma and Dad were parodies dedicated to Eveline. What did that mean?

Her thoughts were cut off by a scream that made her jump. She ducked, before forcing herself to take a look outside. Dad was outside, shirtless, drenched in raid, _seething_. Staring down. An arm reached up from the dirt and grass, and Dad grabbed that arm.

“It was Zoe! She took ‘em!” Lucas screamed, which very quickly became unintelligible when Dad brought his fist down.

Lucas could take a lot. This was _not_ the first time this happened. But it was the first time it was her fault, kinda. As the screaming and Dad’s yelling drowned each other out, Zoe slumped against the wall and ran exhaled. She thought of that day at the mall, when she told dad that Lucas had told her to hold that bag—he believed her, since she was a good girl and Lucas already was a little hellraiser.

Guess Lucas wasn’t as convincing, even if it was the truth.

She slumped against a wall, and then down to the floor, sighing. She’d just let that situation sort it out. Come the morning, she’d _carefully_ make her way out of the greenhouse. And after that, it would be back to business as usual.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! Your request asked for a "missing scene", and I found myself drawn to the years where Lucas and Zoe are both kind of stuck on the Baker land, Lucas with his own plans and agenda, and Zoe just trying to survive and figure out a cure. This was fun to write, and I hope you enjoy it!


End file.
